Unschooling Blog, Vol. 47: Two New Members In Our Unschooling Meetup Group!
Hey all. I wrote awhile back about an unschooling meetup.com group I started for families here in Niigata.
We since have two members who have joined up, one of which is a teacher at the free school just down the street! Kick ass!
My Z-bee when he was just a tiny dude. This is what the unschooling group is all about. Kids of all ages having fun at the beach, at the park, having a picnic, etc, while the parents hangout and enjoy each other's company as well.
Unschooling and homeschooling are still relatively unknown concepts in Japan.
The owner of the free school I have been volunteering at, and which my son will hopefully be attending from next year, discovered the philosophies, principles, and ideas behind unschooling completely independently. Just through reading books and thinking deeply about how children learn and grow, and what they need to be happy and free. Through her experience with her own child she realized that learning is a deeply individual process. She was blown away when we came in and talked of unschooling as if it were actually "a respected thing." It's sort of taboo here, so I imagine it was a surprise when an American college educated, licensed teacher walked in and agreed that the whole traditional system is pretty much bullocks.
She's a well-read, quiet woman passionate about connecting with kids, and the kids at the school are intelligent, wonderful, and amazing as well. So pumped they joined the meetup group.
The other member is a local woman with two small children looking to get together for some play outings.
For me, this is just the beginning, and where the rubber meets the road in our unschooling journey, as far as parting ways with the "traditional path" goes.
If you enjoy my "Unschooling Blog" series here on Steemit, and/or wish to support us in organizing our meetups for this new group. Please consider upvoting and resteeming this post! Thank you!
~*~
(Thanks for stopping by! If you missed the last installment of the Unschooling Blog, Vol. 46: "Hiking and Learning About Fossil Fuels/Oil in Niitsu [VIDEO AND PHOTO POST!]" you can find that HERE.)
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
This is great because he gets to learn things from the parents themselves that he can see the world differently
Thank you. Yes, I agree.A different, more free perspective is always a big benefit!
I toured a Montessori school today and it was fantastic, they have the kids in mixed age groups, the kids garden and learn French and do a million things. If they have that in Japan, and I think they do, you should check it out. They teach kids to be independent and confident.
Yep, that’s basically what the free school is as well. My son was attending a Montessori school here for a while, and it was fantastic. Wish more schools would follow their lead.
I'm surprised Japan isn't involved in unschooling...
but it's not forbidden by the state, right? like in some other countries, for example, in Germany
in Russia unschooling isn't forbidden, moreover, in the constitution there are laws protecting this right of parents (for now they exist at least, I hope when our time comes, it will be the same).
so cute baby;)
so curly hair;) looks like Dad very much;)
and offtop, sorry, but very interesting: did it take long for you to study Japanese language?
Well, it's not forbidden, but many argue that it is not technically legal, either. It's a kind of "gray area," which actually works out well for many parents, because people mostly leave each other alone. Each child has a guaranteed right to an education under the law. The law, however, does not say what kind of education. As long as parents basically show that they are not forcing their child to stay out of public school, nobody really seems to cause too much trouble.
Thanks :)
Well, I am still learning every day. I'm much better at Japanese than when I first came here 8 years ago, but not perfect by any means. I haven't always studied seriously either, though. Just kind of absorbing at my own rate. I'd say I got pretty comfortable in getting by in daily life and small talk after maybe 2 - 3 years.
thank you for reply!
if it's not forbidden by the law, so it's almost allowed, so "green light" for you;) It'll be interesting to look at your boy's progress in that blog, a cool idea!
we're not perfect even in our mother tongues, so being able to speak anything in 2 years is great I think, Japanese isn't close to English..
For me it's just horror, when I look at their way of writing, it seems to me impossible to study it, but it's just an opinion of a person who is too far from Japan;)
it seems to me Japanese and Chinese are the most complicated languages, though many foreigners say Russian is the champion in this sphere;))
I feel so isolated here in Korea! Really happy for you and the group, I gotta do something about it here as well. Any tips?
Yo man, that's alright. Just get the Korea chapter going and we'll be ASIA UNSCHOOL.
Try using Meetup.com. It seems to be a pretty active site. Lots of interest.
Are you guys gonna go the unschool/homeschool route you think?
Thank you man. I was thinking of checking out meetup.com as well. Don't feel like coming back to Facebook but may be it's an option if all else fails. I talked about this with my wife and she pretty much sees where I'm coming from and agrees that we will try to guide our children in the direction that is most natural for them. Also, observing children here and their programming, I wouldn't wish this kind of education upon my worst enemy. So I will see what interest my son as years go by and we will try to develop and expand on that. Understood a lot through your unschooling blogs and feeling much more confident knowing that we're not the only parents facing tougher than tough decisions here!
Well done, I was wondering how that was progressing, it is good when things start out small because then the kids can really bond and also the parents and ye can really get a feel for how you all think things should progress or not in, as that would be true unschooling style. For me I have always felt it's us the parents that needed to be unschooled and our kids just left to figure it all out quite capably by themselves. Great start to a great initiative.
Thank you, and amen to that!
That's great that you are exposing people to the idea of unschooling. Once I finally get out of the DPRNY, I will (hopefully) be looking to start/join a similar group in IN. I did, however, get the opportunity to expose 2 people to these ideas right here in the heart of the beast today. It was chance encounter at a local park, but right away these two individuals were very keen on learning all they could about unschooling (or self-directed learning, which is the term I tend to go with more often). Made what started as a kind of crappy day rather rewarding.
That is great to hear man. More and more people are spreading this ideas. Planting seeds. It’s encouraging.
I feel you. Those chance encounters do have a way of turning downer/shit days around.
Sweet looking this baby, and I love all baby.
I appreciate your blog, thanks for sharing....
awesome initiative on organizing the group👍👍
Thanks my brotha!
Well done!
In our state we did not have such types of schools we just have playschools where children children's of 4 to 5 years use to joined by their parents to learn different things in a playing manner and they really use to have fun and get to learn different things which make them strong and confident for their further education institutions.